Derailment at Kalyan hits Central Railway services

Central Railway (CR) saw more than 60 services being cancelled and 150 being delayed when a coach of a Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST)-bound train derailed at Kalyan’s platform no. 1 A on Monday morning. The incident took place at 9.45 am on the slow line towards CST, leaving services in complete chaos for the better part of the day. But no injuries were reported.

CR was already under fire after services were hit on Sunday as well, when a mudslide took place near Nutan Tunnel, a little after Kalwa. CR was then dealt another blow when the coach of the CST-bound train derailed on the slow line on Monday morning, leading to services being shut down till 12.20 pm.

“The delay occurred when the trains were diverted to the fast line from the slow line and, once again, the situation was choc-a-bloc like yesterday. But we cannot divert all the trains to the northeast section as long-distance trains are also operated there,” said an official on the condition of anonymity.

The severe delay took place because the Parsik Tunnel, located after Diva towards CST on the fast line, has been given a speed restriction of 15 kmph after an incident on June 21 when the structures located next to the tunnel were declared unsafe. “In laymen’s terms, all trains — slow, fast, mail and express — were running through the Parsik Tunnel. So the situation is like running 50 threads through the eye of a needle, instead of running one thread at a time, which is the capacity of the needle,” added the official.

Anita Chitale (25), a commuter who was trying to catch a train from Badlapur, said: “I reached the station at 12.35 pm and reached Kalyan at 2.00 pm and CST around 3.30 pm. There were almost six trains that I could see bunched one behind another.”

She added: “I am sick of CR saying that they are getting ticketing apps or escalators. I want them to give us the basic thing, i.e. good and prompt service.”